The Wellness Docket

Host Tim Culbert welcomes Dr. Alicia Newsome, functional medicine doctor, executive advisor, and bestselling author, to the show for a conversation about burnout, high performance, and building a successful career without sacrificing health, relationships, or personal values. Drawing on more than fifteen years of clinical experience, Alicia works with high-performing leaders through an Integrative Leadership Framework focused on three areas: business, body, and belief. She shares how her own experiences with exhaustion, divorce, health challenges, and burnout ultimately transformed both her medical practice and her understanding of what sustainable success looks like.

Alicia and Tim explore why high performers can become particularly vulnerable to burnout and why physical health, mental well-being, identity, and professional performance cannot always be separated. Alicia explains the importance of recognizing the body's "check engine lights" instead of simply pushing through fatigue, stress, poor sleep, and other warning signs. The conversation also explores perimenopause and the physical and emotional challenges women may experience during this stage of life. Alicia discusses the role of stress, sleep, nutrition, hormones, gut health, and environmental factors, while offering insight for partners, family members, and colleagues who want to better understand and support women navigating these changes.

Alicia also introduces her forthcoming book, Worthy of Rest, which challenges a culture that rewards exhaustion and explores why high-performing people may struggle to believe they are worthy of slowing down. She and Tim discuss different forms of rest—including physical, emotional, sensory, and spiritual rest—and the importance of creating space for joy outside of work. When asked what she would change about the legal profession in relation to mental health, Alicia advocates for more opportunities to step away from the constant analysis and pressure of legal work. Whether through meaningful breaks, creative activities, movement, social connection, or a deliberate end-of-day routine, she encourages lawyers to find practices that help them transition out of their heads and reconnect with themselves and the people around them.


About Dr. Alicia Newsome

Dr. Alicia Newsome is a functional medicine doctor, executive advisor, and bestselling author who helps high-performing leaders build successful careers without sacrificing their health, relationships, or values. She is the founder of Body Wellness Institute and AM Clinical Research Consulting and brings more than fifteen years of clinical experience to her work, including involvement in clinical trials that led to five FDA drug approvals.

Through her Integrative Leadership Framework, Alicia works across three domains—business, body, and belief—to help people scale their careers and lives sustainably instead of burning out along the way. Her work combines individualized assessment, functional medicine, leadership guidance, and a focus on the beliefs and identities that can drive people to overwork, avoid asking for help, or continually put their own needs last.

Her forthcoming book, Worthy of Rest, explores the physiological and emotional consequences of living in a culture that celebrates exhaustion, along with the beliefs that can make people feel they must continually earn the right to rest.

Resources discussed in this episode:
  • Body Wellness Institute
  • AM Clinical Research Consulting
  • Worthy of Rest by Dr. Alicia Newsome (Coming Fall 2026)
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Contact Tim Culbert: 

Contact Dr. Alicia Newsome: 

Creators and Guests

TC
Host
Tim Culbert
Guest
Dr. Alicia Newsome
Dr. Alicia Newsome is the founder of Body Wellness Institute and AM Clinical Research Consulting

What is The Wellness Docket?

The Wellness Docket is a podcast for lawyers and legal professionals ready to prioritize their mental health. Through honest conversations with guests from inside and outside the legal world, we explore burnout, balance, and the pressures of practice—creating space for reflection, recovery, and resilience in the profession. This is a space where your wellness is always on the docket.

Tim: [00:00:02] Okay, so I am here with Doctor Alicia Newsome and if it's okay with you I'll do a quick introduction. Doctor Alicia Newsome is a functional medicine doctor, executive advisor and best selling author who helps high performing leaders build successful careers without sacrificing their health, relationships, or values. She's the founder of Body Wellness Institute and AM Clinical Research Consulting, bringing over 15 years of clinical experience, including work on clinical trials that led to five FDA drug approvals. Through her Integrative Leadership Framework, she works across three domains business, body and belief, helping people scale their careers sustainably instead of burning out along the way. Her forthcoming book, Worthy of Rest, releases this fall. Doctor Alicia, welcome to The Wellness Docket. And thanks for taking some time to talk to me.

Alicia: [00:01:00] Thank you so much for having me here today.

Tim: [00:01:03] Yeah. You're welcome. And so just a funny intro story here. We're going to get into this. And I know that part of your expert expertise is on perimenopause and things like that. And so when I was talking to some of my office staff, they thought that was pretty funny. Like how, how are you going to talk about this. And I was like, okay, well, actually, this is going to be a good lesson because I think I have a lot to learn. And I think a lot of people have a lot to learn. So when we get into that, I'll try not to ask embarrassing questions too much. And I hope that I can learn some things along the way that's helpful for our viewers. And so I guess as a starting point here, you do a lot of research, kind of tell me a little bit about your background and then how does it kind of transition into high performers? So lawyers are high performers. You know, it's a blessing and a curse at many times. And so I think that's something that you can speak to. And how did you get into this area of coaching and advising like you're doing now?

Alicia: [00:02:08] Yes, yes. Lawyers are definitely high performers. We need you all in this world of ours. My husband's one as well. So I understand all that you guys go through and all the logic that you guys have as well too. So for me personally, I got started when I was in private practice and I first shifted the way that I was seeing patients and it came from my dealing with my own health issues. So at the time, my oldest kids, they were two and three years old. They were still in diapers. The youngest one was still in diapers. And I was leaving a very volatile marriage, going through a divorce. And I was exhausted all the time. I would work all day seeing patients come home or well sit in traffic, sit in rush hour traffic, go pick up my kids, feed them, bathe them, get them in bed, and then do all of that so Mama could get to bed. I was tired all the time. No matter how much sleep I had, I was tired. There was a lot going on in my life, and I ended up meeting a functional medicine doctor.

Alicia: [00:03:17] And that doctor ran some advanced lab work on me and really helped me understand what was going on inside my body and completely transformed the way that I was practicing. So changed the way that I was seeing patients and what I was doing with them. So I continued to do that. And then I absolutely love research. I ended up having a friend come to me and was like, have you thought about doing like more work in research? So then I ended up launching another business where I consult companies in pharmaceutical research, really looking at the safety profiles of things and like what's going on with volunteers and clinical trials, all of those different types of things and had outstanding career. Doing that for quite a bit of time. I traveled all over the country doing that work. And then I ended up having a miscarriage. I was remarried at this time, and I was again, I feel like burnout's one of those things, like I've done it multiple times. Like it's not like a one and done.

Tim: [00:04:20] No you don't and you don't ever get good at it, I don't think. Like you just kind of learn to deal with it.

Alicia: [00:04:24] Yes. And I realized, you know, I wanted to shift careers again. And I always had said to myself, like, well, once, once I get myself to a certain place and all these things, I'm going to go back and open up another functional medicine practice. So I did that. I opened the practice that I have now virtually. So we work with people all over the country, all over the world, women struggling with hormonal imbalances. And then from that, I think we tend to attract who we are. So I always attracted a lot of other entrepreneurs, a lot of other professionals, executives, things like that. So my work began to shift because even though you're working with people on their health, then you kind of become like a life coach too. You're talking about all the things that you're seeing. And then I'm consistently seeing different things show up. So that's where my integrated leadership framework came in, where we focus on business. And some people may not have a business of their own. They may be helping to run a business, or you've just got life, you know, you're running your life, which is a business body and then belief. It's the identity part that oftentimes causes us to overwork or to give too much, or not ask for help, or all of those different things. So that's how that's the story of how I got to where I am now.

Tim: [00:05:47] Oh that's amazing. And I bet from those changes, you're far more happy now than you were before. Is that right?

Alicia: [00:05:57] Yes, yes, yes. I've I've learned that one of the biggest things that I find with the people that I work with and even in my in myself, one of the things that leads to burnout or not having a good, healthy mental well-being is when we're saying yes to things that we really want to say no to. And of course, there's things that we've got to say yes to just because of different obligations or seasons of our life. But there's a lot of times where we may be saying yes to something where we simply want to say no. So I've really looked at my life, and in this season of my life over the last couple years, I've really designed it in a way of like, where I'm doing the things that I love, like having conversations like this, right? Or, you know, the days that I want to work, those are the days that I want to work or like integrating the things that bring me joy as well too. So I absolutely. I'm an introvert and I'm an extrovert. I'm. Like both, like I need, I need people, but then I also need just time to myself. So I make. Sure that I have both of that happening. So I make sure that I have decent quality time for myself, for me to be able to regroup. But then also I have in the evenings, I kind of rotate a set of girlfriends of mine where we go walking in the evening. So that's like my time to do something that's healthy for myself, but also for me to chat and connect with other like minded women as well. And then also including like other social activities into my life as well.

Tim: [00:07:33] Right. And that's, you know, when you were saying that I, I almost said you know, amazing. I'm exactly the same way. Where I think I'm kind of, I've done the testing before and it's right on the boundary of like introvert versus extrovert. So I can, I can handle it, I can do it and I enjoy it. But then when I'm done, I'm really done, right? Like there's no there's no going back. And I only have so much energy to spend. So I try to, to place it wherever, you know, things that I really like to do and that we're healthier that way, aren't we?

Alicia: [00:08:08] Yes. Healthier and so much happier too.

Tim: [00:08:12] So when you go, when you get hired by these people, and by the way, like I was looking at your bio, is it true like you've spoken at Yale, Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins for fortune 500 companies? I mean, so like and USA today, ABC and like all these incredible amazing sources. And what kind of things do you do? Like when you first are hired to work with someone, whether it's a company or an individual business person or a leader, kind of what's, what are the steps that take place when you meet with someone?

Alicia: [00:08:50] Well, either if it's done on the corporate end or one on one. There's always an assessment, so we always have to establish where are you at? Where are you at in your health or where are you at in your place of leadership and your like a lot of times there may be self-limiting beliefs that are going on. Like there has to be some type of assessment. So both, both of my, because I've got, you know, more than one business, everything always includes an assessment. That's where we start.

Tim: [00:09:25] And then what kind of things from there, after you've done the initial assessment, what happens next?

Alicia: [00:09:31] So and it's so interesting you're asking me because I feel like I'm talking about them both at the same time. But it's it is very similar in everything that I do. It's incredibly customized to that person. I'm a big advocate of like, we are all individuals, you know, we have individual things going on in our lives. The way that we grew up, What's going on with our health, our goals, all of those different types of things. So whether it's on what you're doing in leadership at the company that you're working with or in your health. And when we're in leadership that side, we're always working on health as well because that's a part part of what we're doing. Or if we're just working with you one on one with your health, we put together individualized plans. And a big part of functional medicine is test don't guess. So that same advanced lab testing that I did many, many years ago, I now still do on my clients as well as some other testing too. So I've grown and evolved and like my understanding of the human body as well too. So that testing allows us to get really specific to what you're needing in a program for your body.

Tim: [00:10:41] And so like, what, what are the tests entail? Is there like, do I, if I'm a client right now? Yeah. So I go through a whole battery of physical tests. And then I'm doing like mental tests, you know, personality tests?

Alicia: [00:10:55] Yes.

Tim: [00:10:56] And all of those things? Is that is that kind of all involved?

Alicia: [00:11:00] Yes. So what we look at is we have questionnaires that are looking at all different areas of your life, as well as different areas of your health when it comes to your digestion, when it comes to your sleep, when it comes to your mental well-being and your, you know, your ability to just be in like a state of flow or peace, your commitment levels, that's always like, you know sprinkled in there as well. So then I know like what you're willing to do and what you're not willing to do. And then the actual testing is something that we send directly to your house and you do everything in the comfort of your home. If we need blood work, we send a phlebotomist to your house, everything's done at home, and then it's shipped back to the lab, and then I get those results. But the labs, depending on what you need, it could be stool testing, where we're literally, we're not looking at your poop, but the lab will look at your poop. It could be hair pieces of your hair that can tell us a lot about your mineral levels. It could be your urine, it could be saliva. And then of course, blood work as well too. So depending on what people need, I mean, we can look at gut. We can look at toxin levels, food sensitivities. There's a whole bunch of blood work that I do that goes beyond the basic panel that looks at inflammatory markers, cardiac markers, full thyroid panels, all of these different types of things. Leptin, that's a hormone that tells whether or not your body is storing fat or releasing fat. So it really just depends on what the person needs.

Tim: [00:12:36] And like, I know you can't give specific stories, but what are some of the success stories that kind of come, you know, what's, what's the first 1 or 2 that comes to your mind of something that, you know, you've taken this on to advise somebody and really seen it on the other end of it, where this leader has come through and achieved far greater than than where they were before, where they were stuck.

Alicia: [00:13:02] Yeah. So I have a client and she has a company and I actually see all of her executive staff too as well too. So they fly me in for trainings or, and then also I work with them one on one as well doing this work. And then we also do group work with other parts of her team and different areas of her company. But for her, when she came in, she had weight that she had done all types of weight loss programs. She had done all types of peptides, wegovy, ozempic, all these different things and had completely just plateaued. She didn't poop at all. And she's always like, you can tell people this story, you know even her staff, like, you know, every time we do a training, you know, I talk about her, but she did not poop at all. Which if you're not pooping 1 to 2 times a day then all the things that you're exposed to, like our, our pooping is like one of our main detoxification organs. So you can get backed up with toxins. And our body is very smart.

Alicia: [00:14:10] What it will do with toxins is it will say, well, we don't want these toxins to go into her organs and all of these different areas. So it will store it in fat, you know, so sometimes people can have weight loss resistance issues because of that. So she wasn't pooping. Her stress levels were crazy high. So we tested her cortisol levels super high anxiety, anxious. She had she, I mean, she owns her company, you know so there's always a lot running on that for those, you know, that understand that type of pressure that's going on as the CEO. And she was really moody too. So she was very like short with her family and, you know, she wasn't feeling like herself anymore, especially as she was going through perimenopause and menopause as well. So with her, we ran testing on her. We started with her hormones and some functional blood work and also got her pooping. So we got her pooping and she absolutely like, she would send me pictures all the time, like, look, you know, because it was that. Yeah.

Tim: [00:15:17] So here's an interesting question for you because this like, and I was, I wanted, I didn't want to break up when you were talking about this. I get so uncomfortable at this discussion that part of the discussion and my wife's like, he hates talking about these things. It's awful. Do you find that you see people like that, that just they're like me, that they almost like get embarrassed or cower away. I'm like, yeah. Oh yeah. I get, I get it that it's a normal process. I get that like, yeah, we're supposed to talk about this, but I'm like, you're sending Pictures. This is like happening. And I'm just like, what? Can I crawl under a desk here?

Alicia: [00:15:53] Right? You know, I think for me, I am really one of my gifts, just natural gifts is really creating a safe space for people. I remember when my husband and I were dating, and we were out one time at a restaurant and someone had come, it was like his birthday. And then there was another couple. It was their birthday. And that's how we started talking. And the wife started talking to me and my husband was like, oh yeah, she's about to get on Oprah's couch.

Tim: [00:16:21] Here we go.

Alicia: [00:16:22] Yeah, because I just naturally have this where people feel very safe to talk to me, you know, and this a lot of times I'm dealing with very private issues that people are dealing with in their health and their personal life and their marriage, all of these things. But we have to have that space to be able to acknowledge and talk about these things so that we can heal from them, and then so that we can be more successful in our purpose and in our business and all the things that we want to do. Otherwise, we stay stuck.

Tim: [00:16:53] Yeah. And so this, this particular person, like, you know, started off with all these difficulties and, and now kind of what's the trajectory now?

Alicia: [00:17:04] Oh yeah. Completely life change. She's been able to lose the weight that she was stuck at where she, you know, she had plateaued. She's been able to lose that weight. She's pooping every day. Her stress levels have gone way down. Everyone around her is like, oh, she's like a new person, you know, like she's much more calm. We saw her cardiac markers changed as well, like her cholesterol and high blood pressure, diabetes, like all of those numbers reversed. So completely life changing. And for her, really, and I see this in a lot of the with the people that I work with. It's generational as well too, you know, so I now work with her mother. I work with her daughter, all of these things. But she was the catalyst to really be the one in her family to say, okay, I want to get healthy. I want to make these changes. So it's completely changed everything for everyone in her family and then also her employees as well too.

Tim: [00:18:07] It's funny because you, you're, you're talking about that and reflecting for me, and this is something I share with people is my father died at 60 of a heart attack. His father was was like early 50s, so 54. And I just said at some point, like, you can't I'm not going to do that, right? Like I'm not going to work so hard that at the end of the day, you just, you don't get to enjoy anything, right? Like what's the purpose of that? Like I'm no good to anybody if I do those things. So it's interesting to hear that a lot more people high functioning people. Corporate business owners and professionals start taking this kind of stuff, all of the integrated health seriously. Right.

Alicia: [00:18:57] Yeah.

Tim: [00:18:59] Is that do you see a lot more of that? Like, do you see.

Alicia: [00:19:01] Yes.

Tim: [00:19:02] That it's opening up.

Alicia: [00:19:03] Oh, yes. And in such a beautiful way too. It's it is something that is so needed because I feel like the generations that came before us were really much more on like, put your head down and work, you know, like, and you don't look up, you know, like you just work, work, work, work, work until you retire. And then, you know, people pass away or don't even make it there. And I, you know, have similar stories in my family as well. And it's like people are here one day and then they're gone the next, you know, and it's just like, we can't, we got to break that cycle. And I'm just a strong believer of that. If I am successful in the businesses that I have, you know, but at the same time, I'm sacrificing my marriage, I'm sacrificing my health, I'm sacrificing my values or my mental emotional well-being, then it's not success like it. At this point in my career, it's just not worth it to me anymore because I've been there where I've been grinding and working and doing all the things that I've been taught to do. And it's, you know, nobody wins in that situation.

Tim: [00:20:15] No, not at all. And I think like, you're just so much more well-rounded when you do all the things, when you make time to do, like, listen, I'm doing this podcast, right? Like I had a, a lawyer once asked me, like, how do you find time to do it? I'm like, I love it. And I have a, I have systems in place that allow me to keep doing what I do and it doesn't affect my work. And I'm, you know, and it kind of feeds into all other areas of your life when you're doing certain things that you like to do that kind of grows. One thing that I'm wondering. Tell me a little bit about, let's get into the conversation now about your, your expertise in perimenopause and because, because they're, you know, let's be honest, there are probably viewers and listeners here that are women who either are or are going to go through that and the people in their lives that love them and want to learn how to go through that. And I wonder, you know, first of all, before you get into that, is it also kind of a thing that people don't want to talk about? Like, is it like, you know, we, we talk. See, I'm not even, I'm going to say the bodily functions discussion we had a few minutes ago. Is it is it similar like people don't, don't you know, is that part of the problem that we kind of that's over here in the corner and we don't want to talk about what's actually happening.

Alicia: [00:21:42] You know, I, I feel like it's there's two views of this because part of me is like everywhere that I go, I'm at the gym and somebody, you know, I tell them what they're doing and then they want to tell me, have a consultation. Right there.

Tim: [00:21:57] Some overshare way too much.

Alicia: [00:21:58] Too much. Yeah. Like, wait, you gotta book an appointment. Yeah. You know but I do think that there's an issue with us ignoring the warning signs. So imagine if you were driving down the street and you're driving your car, and then the check engine light comes on and you're like, okay, I gotta make this appointment. Take it into the mechanic. Imagine if when you get to the mechanic, you tell them my check engine light came on. I've been hearing some rattling noise with my car over the last week or so. And imagine if that mechanic just sat there and nodded his head, wrote some notes, and then he said, all right, well, that's all you need to do is take this sticker and put it right over that check engine light. That would be crazy, right? You'd expect that mechanic to open up the hood, run some diagnostic tests. Tell me, why is my check engine light going off in my car? And I think what happens is a lot of times women in perimenopause or even leading up to it, years leading up to it, may be struggling with low energy fatigue, may need coffee to get through the day, you know, dealing with a 2 p.m., 3 p.m. crash or, you know, irregular menstrual cycles, digestion issues, different things that are going off on that feel off, but just kind of pushing through, you know, like, imagine if.

Tim: [00:23:26] Your check engine light.

Alicia: [00:23:27] That's those are, that's the check engine light. And imagine if you just kept driving that car and didn't take it to the mechanic or just put a sticker over it, that car is eventually going to break down. And what we have now is a generation of women who we have kind of been trained to even do this or even normalize a lot of the things. You know, sometimes there's, you know, there's sayings that go around or women will go to the doctor's office, they run blood work, and the doctor says, well, everything came back normal, you know, and she's like, wait, but I don't feel normal. I don't, I don't feel okay, you know, but then kind of left with no direction of where to go. So she just keeps driving that car, you know, and eventually it starts to break down and create other issues which can make perimenopause really, really difficult.

Tim: [00:24:14] And is it, what is it like number one for people going through that? So what are like some of those main check engine lights to use that analogy? And then number two, kind of what are the signs for people? Because not everybody's going to come out and say, oh, sorry, I'm, as you said, like at a restaurant, you know, coming up to you, what are some of the signs that other people can because I will tell you, obviously, it wouldn't be a very comfortable conversation for someone to go to a loved one and say, oh, I think you're going through this.

Alicia: [00:24:50] Yeah, like you need to get checked out. You've been a little moody.

Tim: [00:24:54] Yeah, that might not go so well.

Alicia: [00:24:56] Yeah. You know, I think when it comes to, I think first we have to stop normalizing all, all the things that go on. You know, when you get a headache, you can take a Tylenol, but you didn't have a headache because you had a Tylenol deficiency, right? It's not because your body is lacking Tylenol. And lots of people have headaches all the time. They're common, but it's not normal to have a headache. And when it comes to perimenopause, those check engine lights. What? You know, it's the low energy feeling exhausted, burnout irregular periods, hot flashes, moodiness. A lot of times women will just Say I don't. I just don't feel like myself anymore, you know? Or perhaps now you have stubborn belly fat. You know, that's a big area where women will start gaining weight because of the decrease in estrogen that's going on. Estrogen allows you to be more sensitive to insulin and things like that. So your body better utilizes glucose. So when you know there's issues with those levels that can cause weight gain around the belly. Cortisol, the stress hormone as well too, is really big with that as well. But I think just women having, I feel like women talk about it.

Tim: [00:26:22] With amongst themselves.

Alicia: [00:26:23] Yeah.

Tim: [00:26:24] Maybe not as much with, well, a little bit. I've, I've. Experienced a few people that talk about it more openly and, and I've seen that, but I feel like it is a little bit of a of a white elephant that that not everybody wants to talk about.

Alicia: [00:26:38] Yeah. I think also as a man, you may feel like it's the. Maybe it is just the elephant in the room, you know? But then like, how do I approach her? Or even are you wondering how to encourage her to get checked out?

Tim: [00:26:55] Well, yeah, so what is helpful and like, whether it's men or other family members or partners, whatever, whichever way. What is helpful in your opinion? This is probably not the, this is beyond the medical part, but you've seen this before. And yeah, people have asked these questions. How can somebody be supportive in those circumstances?

Alicia: [00:27:16] Yeah, that's such an important question. So first, to understand what's going on during during that time. So from the ages of 40 to 60, that's the highest rate of suicide for women statistically. And I believe that's because that is a time in her life when she is going through perimenopause and the menopause and does not feel like herself, you know, and we can joke a lot about women being crazy and, you know, moody and all of those things. But it's a very real feeling of what's going on. And the exhaustion or the brain fog or the forgetfulness and all of those things that are going on during this season of life can feel very like, what is going on? Can I really continue to live this way? The, you know, depression can come along with that as well too, you know, so I think understanding that and having empathy towards that and then understanding kind of big picture what's going on with hormones. So the biggest thing that impacts women during perimenopause is stress, but it's not mental, emotional stress like you would think. So that is a big component. And even as like a functional medicine doctor, I'm like, I can't get rid of all the stress in your life, but I can help you build that zone of stress resiliency. So think about it as if you were going whitewater rafting and you're going down this river and your, but your raft is like hitting the banks, right? That's like life happening. Things going on with your relationships or work or your kids that's, and you're just hitting those banks. What we want to do is we want to increase that zone of stress, resiliency, widen it. So as life continues to happen and you're going down in your raft, it's a lot easier. So we have to look at…

Tim: [00:29:03] Still hitting the banks, but you're just maybe not hitting as many or you're, you're resilient.

Alicia: [00:29:08] Yes. Your, your body is able to handle the stress more. So there's mental, emotional stress, which we often think of, but there's other stressors. There's toxins. Toxins are things like biotoxins and then environmental toxins. Biotoxins are living things like mold, fungus, parasites, bacteria, viruses. They're living things that live inside of the body. They need your nutrients in order to survive. They're like leeches, and they disrupt the gut. They create issues in the brain, all different types of things. And then there's environmental toxins. Environmental toxins are going to be things in the air that we breathe, the water we drink, the chemicals that we clean with, the skincare products that we use. And they include, they have endocrine disruptors in them. So that endocrine is hormone disruptors. So they come in and disrupt your hormones. And then there's another group of stressors that I call deficiencies. So there's nutrient deficiencies like not getting enough protein or good fats. And you need certain levels of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, antioxidants. There's your gut. So the gut has been studied and shown to have ten times the amount of nerves going from your gut up to your brain then leading out from your entire peripheral nervous system. So the gut is called the second brain because it controls so much of what's happening inside of the brain with your mood and with your focus and with your energy. And then sleep is the other important factor as well. And sometimes there's hormonal things going on that stop you from being able to get sleep.

Alicia: [00:30:41] But sleep is one of the most underrated things that can really impact your health and doesn't cost anything. When you look at all of these stressors, toxins, deficiencies, and stress, I want you to think about the woman in your life who is going through perimenopause, and she is like climbing this mountain called life. And she's got a book bag on, right? But as she's going up that mountain, there's, she's living in a house that has some mold or she goes to work and there's mold. Think of that as like a big rock put in that bag or backpack. And then there's things going on with cleaning products, external toxins. And then she's got some parasites in her body. Put that in the backpack. Then she's not, you know, she's just waking up. She's having a cup of coffee. She's having dessert for breakfast. So some muffins and pancakes and things like that. So nutritionally, she's not getting nourished like she needs. Another rock in her backpack. She's not sleeping at night. Another rock in her backpack, and she's climbing this mountain that's getting harder and harder. Then she has stuff going on with their kids. There's things going on with work, more things in her backpack. So I think really, for someone who's really wanting to support a woman in perimenopause is one, just acknowledging and seeing all that she's carrying within her body, like physically, physiologically, that is a load on her body.

Alicia: [00:32:02] And we weren't really created to carry all that, right? Many generations ago, there wasn't all these toxins and, you know, all these things that we're exposed to today. And what happens during perimenopause is that when you're in your childbearing years, you have all of this insulin or you have all this estrogen and progesterone, testosterone that your ovaries are producing. Eventually that shuts down. But what should happen is your adrenal glands, which primarily produce your stress hormone cortisol. So your body is interpreting stress, toxins, deficiencies all the same way, it's all physiological stress on the body. And when the body is doing that, it's not able to do what it should do during perimenopause and pick up and produce estrogen and progesterone. So a lot of times people think it's just over, you know, once you're, you go through menopause, but actually your adrenal glands should be producing those hormones for you. But our bodies are very smart and it's always going to prioritize survival. So it's going to prioritize producing that cortisol and adrenaline and all the things when you're in the stress state versus giving you those hormones like estrogen and progesterone. So that's why for women, going through perimenopause can be very, very difficult because she has all these stressors, all these things in her backpack that she's like carrying up this mountain. And her body physiologically is incredibly stressed more than what we just typically see.

Tim: [00:33:35] So I have two comments on that now. Yes. Number one, a mouthful. Yeah. No. But number one, you have the best analogies. I'm like,

Alicia: [00:33:43] Oh thank you.

Tim: [00:33:44] We've got the car. We've got the backpack. I think there was one more in there. The white water rafting. And then I was also like, I'm learning a lot here. I'm drawing a Venn diagram on my page.

Alicia: [00:33:57] Oh, I love it. Show me what you got at the end.

Tim: [00:33:59] It's not very nice. I said, okay, I'll just take a break and start listening here. But no, that's amazing. So I think that those are like really helpful for me to listen to those things and think like, oh, okay, that really is hard. Like,

Alicia: [00:34:17] Yeah.

Tim: [00:34:17] You know, I'm, I'm thinking about all these rocks in the book bag. I'm like, well, how is anybody ever going to get anywhere with this? Like, no wonder people are really struggle when they go through these things.

Alicia: [00:34:27] Yeah. It's hard.

Tim: [00:34:30] Tell me a little bit about you, you have a new book coming out, is that correct?

Alicia: [00:34:35] Yes.

Tim: [00:34:37] Tell me. Worthy of rest. I love the title. I've already got like five books that I've ordered because of past podcast episodes that I haven't done yet. But tell me about this one, because I'm probably going to have to go on my list now.

Alicia: [00:34:49] Yes. So Worthy of Rest. It's for the woman who's tired of being the strong one and another. It would be a good read to understand what she's going through and how to help her. And we live in just a culture that worships exhaustion. You know, you get the pat on the back, you get the high five for like pushing through and going, going, going, grinding, you know, all of those things. So the book really talks about a lot physiologically, like what our body is going through, but then it really goes into the identity piece of why we may not feel worthy to rest. And a lot of times that is attached to those self-limiting beliefs of, I'm not good enough or I'm all alone or, you know, making sure everything's got to be perfect. You know, these these different standards that we put on ourselves. And also it walks women through and men through the framework that I take people through when they feel triggered. You know, so when things come up where we'll default into like, I'm not enough or, you know, I'm all alone, all of those different types of things. And then there's a part of the book that talks about the different types of rest. So oftentimes we just think of rest as taking a nap or getting a good night's sleep, but there's sensory rest where we might be sitting behind a computer all day long, or we may work somewhere where there's lots of bright lights, or we may be with kids all day and there's talking and chattering or crying. So we need sensory rest there. We may need emotional rest where we have things that we haven't grieved or processed. We may need rest for our soul or spiritual rest where we need to feel reconnected. So there's different types of rest. So I go into those and go over those inside the book as well.

Tim: [00:36:42] Oh, amazing. I, I feel like I've learned so much. I always ask everybody kind of near the end of these discussions and this is we may have to modify this question a little bit. But you are married to a lawyer, so you, you would have some, some insight into this is if there was one thing kind of in the legal profession regarding mental health that you would change, what might that be? And so whatever comes to mind, you've seen it firsthand. What's something that you would would change?

Alicia: [00:37:21] You know, I would definitely implement more of the like mental health days. And maybe they don't even need to be called mental health days. Maybe they just need to be called like fun days or, you know, time where we really can take time away for our family. I know there's vacation days and all of that, but it's like we have so many things to do as humans. Or even just breaks in the day. Like my husband, he wakes up so early and he works all day long, you know, and all these cases and all these clients and all of this. And I feel like there's, it's a very heavy job. So you're like in your left side of your brain, is it the left side where you are always, you know, analyzing things, strategizing, figuring things out you know, logically moving through things. I think it would be good to really get into like your body where you're like out of your head into your heart. I know that sounds like a little woo woo, but where you're, you're actually like having more like joy, like things that where you're moving, where you're dancing, where you're painting, where you're bowling.

Alicia: [00:38:33] Maybe it's social activities, but things where it's like opportunities to like get out of the head, even if it's just a practice that's included. Right after work, you know, where you can transition from work to home, where you have a routine of like, I'm going to turn on this song that I love and I'm going to play it, or I'm going to take a few minutes and like, I love to color, you know, they've got adult coloring books. So I'm going to take five minutes and I'm just gonna, I'm gonna color or have a practice where you write down everything that's in your head, like all your to do lists, things going on with clients and work. Write it all down on a piece of paper so it's out of your head. It's on that piece of paper. And you know, for me, I flip it over and say, thank you, God. You know, like it's handled. It's there for tomorrow. Some, some kind of routine like that I think would be very helpful.

Tim: [00:39:28] Oh, that's really nice. So I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to, to talk on this podcast. It's been a lot of learning for me, and I hope that that's that stuff that everybody can take away. Little pieces of what you've talked about and incorporate those things into their everyday lives. So, and I think for, for anybody and even lawyers as well, any high-performing professionals will see the benefits of those things. And I wish you well on on your upcoming book and everything that you're doing. I think it's, it seems to be adding a lot of positive value to the universe, shall I say.

Alicia: [00:40:09] Thank you so much. And thank you so much for having me here today. I really enjoyed our conversation.

Tim: [00:40:14] Yeah. Me too. Thank you.